Mood Icy For Games In Salt Lake Poll Show Residents Worried About Huge Debt After 2002 Olympics

Utah’s capital once was seen as a tight ship, well prepared five years ahead of its debut as America’s next host for the Olympic Games.

That image was shattered this summer by the scandal-forced resignation of the president of the 2002 Winter Games’ organizing committee, public outrage over his $1.1 million parachute and convulsive management changes.

Now, Utah’s governor is stepping in to try to steer the listing liner.

Gov. Mike Leavitt says he’ll make a statewide radio address Wednesday to “lay the framework for the next 4-1/2 years,” a message he says will explain why state residents should be optimistic about the Games.

The Republican governor says he has spent the better part of two weeks meeting with lawmakers, residents and officials of the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, U.S. Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee to discuss solutions to the management upheaval and growing public skepticism.

In the last week, Leavitt made two key appointments - outgoing Mormon church general authority John E. Fowler as state Olympics coordinator and auto dealer Bob Garff as chairman for the organizing committee’s board of trustees.

Now, says Leavitt, it’s time to assure the public it will not be left paying for the Olympics.

According to lawmakers, critics and a poll, Leavitt’s powers of persuasion will be taxed.

A poll of 404 Utah residents conducted in late September found just 53 percent in favor of Salt Lake City hosting the Games, down from 62 percent in late July, just after Tom Welch resigned as the organizing committee’s chief executive officer and president.

Welch then pleaded no contest to spouse abuse.

A month later, the committee moved its chairman, Frank Joklik, into Welch’s spot. That prompted the resignations of two top financial executives, one a respected former state budget director.

Then, Leavitt’s choice for the state’s first Olympics coordinator said he wouldn’t take the job after all because he saw Joklik and the committee as hostile to state oversight.

Now, according to the new poll conducted by Dan Jones & Associates, only 36 percent are confident the organizing committee can stage the Olympics without leaving a debt for Utah taxpayers.

Claire Geddes of United We Stand-Utah says residents are enraged that the organizing committee voted to give Welch $1.1 million if the Games succeed, an amount that includes $10,000 a month for consulting work he’s not really expected to do.

Those living in the populous Salt Lake Valley are also angry over the traffic hassles caused by an accelerated reconstruction of the freeways, Geddes says.

“I think people see nothing for them to gain in this,” Geddes says.

If that’s so, then bad information is to blame, says Sen. Lane Beattie, R-West Bountiful and president of the Utah Senate.

“They think that somehow Utah state government is putting the Games on,” Beattie said (see related box). “Their perceptions are very wrong, but that’s not surprising. So are the perceptions of those in the Legislature.”

“I sense the public still wants the Olympics, but they don’t want to be buried if something goes wrong,” Rep. David, R-Kamas Ure says. “They are looking to the Legislature for checks and balances.”

Leavitt and Beattie insist the state already has enough checks and balances over what is primarily a private enterprise.

For all the current turmoil, Salt Lake’s ability to stage the Games should not be hurt, says Dick Schultz, executive director of the USOC in Colorado Springs.

“If it had happened a year or two out, it could have had some impact, but there’s plenty of opportunity here to change perceptions and repair any damage.”

“If we can assure the public we’re going to run the Olympics and size it to our revenue sources, that will bring confidence,” Garff said. “Beyond that, our actions will speak louder than our words.”

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MONEY MATTERS A statewide sales tax is being used to build $59 million worth of sports venues for the Salt Lake City Games, but no taxpayer money is to be used for operations. The organizing committee has promised to repay the $59 million and give the state a $40 million “legacy” fund to continue operating the sports facilities if the Games make money. The $1 billion budget is to be financed with revenue from the sale of broadcast rights, sponsorships, tickets and lesser sources.